Juhlin Svensson, Ann-Christine

Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.

2000 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)

Abstract [en]

This dissertation consists of previously published reports with a summary. The main purpose of the empirical studies is to describe and analyse the function and use of educational media in teaching through the understanding and actions of teachers and librarians. The theoretical frames of reference are "framefactor", curriculum and steering theories. In the summary a new theoretical perspective is adopted. Based on new institutional and sociocultural theory, the use of textbook and information technology is reanalysed as cultural tools.

The result is based on three empirical studies. In six upper-secondary schools 35 teachers, librarians and school principals were interviewed about their understanding of textbooks and information technology and the results indicated that the pedagogical aim and structure of textbooks are the main reasons for their use. To obtain a deeper investigation an observation study of three teachers use of educational media in the classroom was carried through. Their use of different types of educational media indicated that their own style/strategy in the classroom determined in what way the textbook was tied to teaching. The case studies were followed by a survey of twenty upper-secondary schools. The main result confirmed the tradition with textbooks and showed that teachers who often use textbooks had more traditional ways of acting in the classroom than teachers who more seldom or never used textbooks. More flexible learning strategies for pupils appeared when teachers had a positive attitude towards information technology.

The last part of the dissertation analyses the significance of the historical formal and informal rules and traditions for educational media as mediated means and the possibility for change. The textbook is a cultural tool shaped for the school with its institutional limits. Information technology, in contrast to textbooks, has not been shaped as a unique artefact for education. Teachers used information technology according to the restraints and rules in the activity system as a complex technology they still have not completely appropriated.